Response video 1

[@mymessylab]

I red the book twice and I never found it misaligned from your videos where you’ve pointed out repeatedly the spirit of the entire project, once got it, it’s clear that your book match it. You are the only person that I’m aware which nowadays have tried to transfer that kind of knowledge in this way. Thanks for that, It’s really appreciated, for sure from me.

[@timothyp8947]

The review gives the impression that the person just wanted a kit or step-by-step instructions on building a JMZ machine rather than necessarily understanding how you might go about designing one from scratch. I myself have been on the software side of computing for 35+ years professionally and find it rather interesting to see how such hardware designs come together and the constraints you have to work with. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll be designing putting a small system together myself rather than, say, just building a modern day equivalent to my 1st computer - a SoC MK14 kit. Love watching your videos be they tackling repairs of ancient machines or something new like the JMZ machine.

[@Upper_Room_Studios]

I made it to your channel, this video, and your web page jmprecision BECAUSE of that review. I am finishing Ben Eater's breadboard computer and am interested in doing another project. I wasn't going to buy the book because of that guy's review but I'm glad I dug to find this video. I have a background in electronics and electrical theory so Eaters' computer isn't too bad, but even the book he references requires previous electrical knowledge. It seems to me the guy writing the review wants his hand held and have a finished product, but from your video it seems the finished product is a way to think and design a computer that WE want four OUR specific needs. To be able to think and design my own computer is way more valuable than a blinking pile of chips, wire, and solder that I don't have full mastery over. I think that I'll do your microprocessor kit/book combo next though. Thanks for this vid! I'll be sure to purchase the book.

[@hinzster]

I wonder how many people bought Knuth's books and had that kind of reaction. Or, my personal favourite, Gödel, Escher, Bach. Some books are written to entertain you, these books are written to educate you. Or at least to make you think. Apart from that I have this project in my electronics drawer that may or may not some day become a full 65816-based microcomputer. I'm don't consider myself mad enough to implement dynamic RAM, although it would be much easier, but my goal is to run UNIX v6 on it ("if a PDP/11 could do it, a 65816 will certainly capable enough to do it as well" - famous last words).

[@Kodemaestro]

hmm... 2 months without videos. Hope all is OK Jerry.

[@diags6468]

Hope he’s doing ok, miss his videos

[@thomas-i5o7h]

I recently obtained a copy of your book and am in the process of reading and studying it. I am doing my best to learn and understand the immense amount of information contained within it's pages. I just want to say thank you for making this type of information on this subject easier to discover. Right at this time I am working on trying to understand the monitor source code. I have no background or training in programming so I am doing my best to make sense of it all, but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out. Thank you again for your wonderful book.

[@jensgoerke3819]

I haven't built any peripherals for Z80 systems in ages, but now that I'm retired I want to get back into the hobby. Regardless of which CPU I end up using, the design process itself is basically the same. Your book is going on my next Amazon order.

[@PaulaXism]

Hi Jerry. Hope you are good and just busy thinking up more ways to make us old electronics/computer people have nightmares. I have recently retired from the world of industrial systems repair, encountering many ancient horrors buried in the back of production line factories. Sooo.. I really loved your PDP11/32 series.. (not at all.. there are some still struggling on in this neck of the woods) I just wanted to say I absolutely agree with everything you say in this video. I really enjoyed the "design and build.. maybe" series and have been meaning to buy your book. I tried to build a Z80 computer back in the early 80's but couldn't ever quite manage to source the bits.. mostly ram chips.. Now we come to what I think is the main trust here.. the "entitled generations". Yes.. absolutely. A close friend is half my age.. he desperately wants to be something.. no idea quite what.. First it was electronics.. as he was running little more than a computer board swapping attempt at a business.. but after my attempts to teach him anything of worth he decided that was too hard and then went on to trying to be an engineer/machinist (my pre computer/industrial life after school I was a turner) And now.. well.. Trying to win the Olympic 100m after watching a couple of videos on youtube rather than going out running seems to be the goal.. without even beginning to learn the basics.. This is a guy who can't take a relevant measurement with a multimeter.. or a set of calipers.. The goal seems to throw money at an idea and hope it somehow magically just happens. I try.. I really do. But sometimes I just want to get hold of his whole generation and bash them round the head with one of the textbooks we were expected to know from cover to cover back in the 70's. Last week.. "This is a file.. you use it like this.. there is a lot of feel involved".. Goes at it like somebody trying to cut their way through the Arctic ice sheets.. puts a couple of deep gouges in my soft jaws into the bargain.. "Did you learn nothing at school?".. "We never did it".. They seem incapable of watching and paying attention.... What goes on in their heads when somebody is giving away free skills and knowledge?.. I see the Homer Simpson clockwork monkey bashing away... He's banned from using my drill.. after the 3 seconds he tried to drill a hole with it... And here I am.. and I'm a girl.. and I did some basic metalwork and woodwork back at school.. not a lot.. but enough to make a bracelet out of some copper pipe and a spatula for cooking classes.. My mother was a civil servant.. she built roads.. big roads.. dual carriageways with bridges over rivers and roundabouts and traffic lights.. those kind of roads (Hereford is one if you want to know) my father was one of the Concorde design team.. I guess it comes from there.. What I observe from the 30 somethings and younger.. At school they were taught how to whine and make excuses and expect it all to be done for them rather than anything of value.. They will spend longer making excuses about why they can't learn something than it would take to pay attention and learn it .. I'm surprised they can even dress themselves.. food comes by delivery or takeaway.. capable cooking is beyond them..grrrr.. We didn't build the internet so our kids could be ignorant entitled and stupid.. but here we are.. Learn something every day.. even if it's only "Eating Pringles and sitting at the computer all day will make you fat".. (I love exercise.. I can sit and watch people doing it all day) Rant over.. Humans aren't going to make it.. are they..

[@JerryWalker001]

Thanks for the message, I have been in touch with many like minded people while making these video's but I also have to deal with a lot of entitled individuals who are not willing to put in the effort and expect everything to be handed to them. I will begin posting more videos in the next week or so but decided to have a break to catch up on some projects. Videoing a repair makes it take 3 to 4 times as long and my videos are not 'staged' as so many KZbin videos seem to be. One interesting thing I have noticed is that the people who whine about my videos have no content of their own so have no idea of the work involved or that it is up to me what the topic of my videos are. So many people seem to be under the impression that if the video is not exactly what THEY want then I am wrong. I did run my own business for a long time and retired a few years ago but it was very evident over the last 20 years when employing younger staff that society is in trouble due to the over entitled generations that have appeared. Having said that some of my viewers are young AND enthusiastic AND willing to learn so if enough people try to provide information then we may still have a chance and that is why I started this channel. It is just not always appreciated :)

[@vanhetgoor]

It is good to write a book, the information in a book stay much longer preserved, information in digital form flows away in the spring when attics are cleaned and old computer will meet their creator. Books on paper have the future, books in PDF have a limited use and a best-before date.

[@Kodemaestro]

Every time I watch a video like this I worry that it will turn you off of creating videos or writing more books... Rest assured that there are those out there who appreciate and understand what you're doing. It is so hard these days to find information on how stuff fundamentally works in discreet terms... I've built a number of z80 computers over the years, but I've always wanted to build one with completely discreet logic. Everyone says 'just use this modern chip'... that's not the point... I am fascinated by how things were done before my time and when I build a project for fun I always pick a year (i..e 1975) and make it a hard and firm requirement for the project that I cannot use any component which wasn't widely available in that year.... I've gained a lot of understanding of some thing that I've never touched from your videos and books - specifically in this case on DRAM. Though for my next project I intend to implement a much more complex bank-switching mechanism than you are using. I'll be creating a very basic mmu to map address ranges (2k pages) in the 64k CPU's range to a 22bit physical address bus. Right now I am looking forward to seeing more of your switching power supply project. I've always found power supplies to be a bit of a black box so it's great to open it up. I've actually just (yesterday) finished winding my first line power transformer using E-I steel core laminations that I found on AliExpress. This will be to power my Mark-8 computer. For this project I'm planning to design a hybrid switching supply like we've seen in some of the minicomputers you've repaired. It will be a regular 50hz stepdown transformer, and a number of switching buck regulators for the rails. It's been impossible to find information on discreet buck converters though.. Since the Mark-8 was released in 1974, my target 'date' for this is 1975. I'm using only components that were available in 1975 so the regulators will be based around something like LM741 op-amps and 2n3055 transistors. Keep up the good work! always looking forward to new videos. Hope to see some more mini-computer or discreet computer repairs coming up and of course your discreet design projects!

[@arminth]

Jerry! I think you just forgot to include the completed computer in the package with the book! Easy fix! 😂 I admire your patience and your ability to not go completely off the rails being confronted with this amount of hybris and incompetence! The only thing I have to complain about the book is that due to my eyesight is getting worse and worse, I can't read books without glasses anymore in bed! 😬 So I blame it on you, ok? 😉

[@JerryWalker001]

It could be that my own eyesight is so bad that I don't know what I wrote 😉

[@arminth]

Well i think that's the problem of men born in the 60s like me and probably you aswell (67 rulez btw).

[@pikadroo]

Wow. What an ignorant thing say. Can’t wait till you get ripped off by this fraud.

[@FireballXL55]

Dam it I now will have to buy the book. 😊

[@IanScottJohnston]

I’m not interested in the book or even the full schematics, but heck! I enjoyed the hell out of the videos because I grew up with Z80’s professionally. Designed a few I/O systems based on them……..but sad to hear recently that support has ended for them.

[@JerryWalker001]

Yes you are here for the free buffet but at least you did not order the steak and then complain that you are a vegetarian 😉

[@AKATenn]

it looks to me they wanted an instruction manual like you'd get from a lego set, or a piece of ikea furniture, and what they got was a massive info dump on how it all worked instead.

[@andymouse]

I have watched your videos and enjoyed them but I would not buy the book because I don't want to design a Z80 based system due in part to the fact I know I would need to up my skill set and I don't have the motivation at the moment. In my opinion the mystery reviewer wanted it all on a plate with no effort on his behalf (or her's) and discovered that was not what was on offer and had a hissy fit. I enjoy your work....cheers.

[@MatsEngstrom]

I think we're two of a kind, though I'm not sure of your age, you might be 5-10 years older than me but that's nothing for us oldies. :). While I would have liked to express myself in basically exactly the same way as you in the same situation, I probably would have toned it down a bit, or maybe just replied to the review with "Sorry you didn't get what you wanted". I do respect you and your knowledge and would probably enjoy your company (I don't like hanging out with people in general), but I do see why you have a "bit of a reputation" in the community that sometime surfaces when your name is mentioned in one of your subjects. Anyways - thank you for all your hard work and sharing of knowledge - keep it up end never mind all the selfish tossers out there.

[@JerryWalker001]

Had the message been to me then I would tend to agree but when unfounded nonsense is put out that harms my income I respond in kind although I certainly toned it well down compared to how I could have responded. I could have also named and shamed but I did not. It is also not possible to respond to the reviews in question as the web site does not allow it. I am fully accepting of critical comments as long as they relate to something I have said or written but I look at intentional dishonesty in a different way. Over the years I have had some truly idiotic comments from people and any attempt to respond results in childish gossip in various forums. That is why I never post on forums and leave them to it. I have had people trying to insist that comments which demonstrated a total miss understanding were simply constructive criticism when they most certainly were not and any attempt I make to correct their miss understanding is met with abuse. I am trying to offer advice and people are free to take it or leave it but I am a very strong believer in honesty. I did not mention the reviewers name but wanted to use this review to put this issue to bed once and for all as I have now addressed this over 100 times so I do not believe I was too harsh.

[@ThePetaaaaa]

Thank you very much for also showing this side of being a KZbinr/author! Everybody is entitled to their opinion and from my point of view yours was fair and also entertaining.

[@JerryWalker001]

Yes it starts to get a bit wearing after a while so I am considering stopping posting videos.

[@MichaelEhling]

@@JerryWalker001 I would understand if you stopped. And I would miss your videos.

[@diags6468]

@@JerryWalker001, please don't let a few bad apples discourage you from making your videos. You provide some of the most in-depth and original educational content available!

[@bobvines00]

@@JerryWalker001 Please don't quit posting videos! Your channel is the *only* one (that I'm aware of) that goes into the theory & practical detail about whatever each video is on.

[@alancordwell9759]

@@JerryWalker001 Jerry, I watch and enjoy every one of your videos. It would be a crying shame if you were to be put off doing them because of the attitude of the minority. Speaking as a member of the majority, I sincerely hope you will continue.

[@tassiebob]

Speaking of the book - is it available currently? I ordered it from Amazon 6 months ago and it's yet to ship...

[@FireballXL55]

I ordered mine when I said dam it as a reply and got it the next day and as far as I know I don't have prime.

[@tassiebob]

@@FireballXL55 Sounds like I need to put a rocket up Amazon then... I don't have Prime now, but I did when I placed the order. The other book I ordered at the same time arrived long ago....

[@tassiebob]

So I can cancel the Amazon US order and order from Amazon UK... This just sounds like a way to get me to pay more freight (the original order was for two of Jerry's books, one of which shipped, and this one didn't).

[@pikadroo]

Maybe the book will work better than the over priced boards you sell that don’t work.

[@JerryWalker001]

I built and tested every type of board I sold. Unfortunately there is not much I can do if someone does not have the knowledge or skill to get them working and is unwilling to learn. As far as being over priced you could always spend a few hundred hours of your own time reproducing a board and ordering a small quantity. You may learn how much this costs. I sell boards for what I pay for them and no one is forcing you to buy them, grow up.

[@pikadroo]

@@JerryWalker001there are a number of other KZbinrs i have spoke to that cant get tour stuff to work. So, ya make boards that cant work and then blame people for being uneducated. I bet you feel real good about that real smart. And you got sycophants out here that never try to make anything of yours, that will be smart with you so. Good on you, arrogant prick.